Turkey is playing ‘games’ with Kashoggi case

French Foreign Minister JeanYves Le Drian denied Turkish claims that France was given an audio tape related to the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

“He has a political game to play in these circumstances,” Mr Le Drian told France 2 yesterday, when asked whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was lying about giving tapes to French authorities.

On Saturday, Mr Erdogan said he had also shared the recordings with Saudi Arabia, the US, Germany and the UK, among other countries.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu insisted France had received the recordings and called Mr Le Drian’s comments “impudent”.

“Our intelligence shared information with them on October 24, including the voice recordings,” Mr Cavusoglu said.

Canada yesterday became the only nation to acknowledge receiving the recording, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying his country “has been fully briefed up on what Turkey had to share”.

Mr Trudeau said Canadian intelligence agencies had been working “very closely” with Turkish intelligence on Khashoggi’s death.

Canada and Saudi Arabia were embroiled in a diplomatic dispute after its ambassador to Riyadh criticised the arrests of Saudi women activists.

Saudi Arabia ordered the ambassador to leave the kingdom, froze all new business with Canada and said it would not renew government scholarships for thousands of Saudis studying there.

Turkey has not said how it obtained the recordings but Mr Erdogan claimed the audio recordings showed what transpired after Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2.

Saudi Arabia said Khashoggi was murdered in an unauthorised operation. Six Saudi officials were dismissed over his death and 18 people arrested.

Turkey claims a 15-member team was sent to kill Khashoggi. Mr Erdogan said the team knew who was behind his death and the whereabouts of his remains.

Meanwhile Simon McDonald, British Prime Minister Theresa May’s special envoy, met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia yesterday, in the first visit by a senior British official to the kingdom since Khashoggi’s death.

Mr McDonald reviewed relations and discussed regional and international developments with Prince Mohammed, the Saudi state-run news agency said. On Sunday, he met King Salman.